Jeff Hemphill and I convinced Jason Stowers to come join us at City of Rocks, Idaho
for some late season climbing.
Click on the small pictures to see larger pictures
and click on "Full size" for the 5 Meg resolution.

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This is Elephant Rock, the first rock we started on. This is the same rock that Jeff
wanted to climb the night we arrived. The sun had already gone down and Jeff goes,
"So, let's go check out that 5.7. There should be lots of light." Riiiigggghhhttt.
Needless to say we waited until morning.

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Jeff, before he led a 5.7 called Columbian Crack on Elephant Rock that had just opened for climbing.

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Jason with his trademark yellow helmet. You can see the miles and miles of desolate grasslands around
the City area behind him.

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Jeff on the top of Elephant Rock giving the rock two big thumbs up.

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The view from the top of Elephant Rock. Obviously, the City gets the Paul Perrault stamp of approval.

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Now this picture is a little difficult to explain. That's Jason who has his head completely inside
a big crack. He had dropped a sling and was digging into the crack to try to get it back. As it turns out
there was also a "booty" carabiner sitting about 20 feet into the crack that I was able to fish
out with a few slings connected to my nut tool. Yay, booty!

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From the top of Elephant Rock, we dropped back onto the face of the climb to top rope a climb
called Rye Crisp. It would have made for a really fun lead, if only we had gear bigger than 4 inches.
That's Jason on TR running up the giant flake. It was one of the coolest flake climbs I've done.

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Up near the top of Rye Crisp it gets a little interesting, but overall the lead
would be fine with a few large pieces of gear and a little bit of huevos.

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The last time Jeff and I were at City, we got beat up by a climb called She's the Bosch . See our
beatings here : Click then scroll down. Anyway, we
figured that this time we were going to try it when we were fresh. We also had a
weapon to attach the climb with: Jason Stowers. Here he is belaying Jeff after I got my
ass handed to me again by the crux of the climb.

The rest of the climb is documented in videos. In short, we "group led" the 5.11c climb by
me leading the first 8 bolts, Jeff "leapfrogging" 2 bolts, Jason tackling the toughest section
and then me finishing when Jason finally got completely exhausted. A few videos here:
Jeff working the crux and then using the FROG: VIDEO LINK

Jeff discussing his solution to the first (and easier) crux: VIDEO LINK

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After getting spanked on She's the Bosch , we called it a day. The next day, we headed
out to a spire called Lost Arrow Spire to try a two pitch trad climb called the Classic Route.
The first pitch was 5.7 and the second was run-out 5.5. This is the spire from a distance.
The picture doesn't really do it justice since the spire was actually around 150 feet vertical.
The left side of the rock is what we rappelled off.

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Great shot of Jeff with his mouth open at the top of the spire. I think he's in the middle of
saying, "Paul, you're the best climber in the world." In fact, I'm sure that's what he's saying. :)

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This is a placeholder for the panoramic shot that I promised Jason I'd make from his shots at the
top of the spire. Jason, keep reminding me and I'll stitch it up.

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On the top of the spire was a totally flat terrace about 20 feet wide and 10 feet long with
a small puddle in the middle. Since I hadn't brought my tripod, I nestled the camera against some
horns and snapped a timer shot of the boys at the top.

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From the spire, we headed back over by the Bumblie Wall to get some more sport climbing in.
This is Jeff atop Mystery Bolter , a longish single pitch of mostly slab with outstanding
granite and cool views.

From there, we tried out a 5.11a called Get Over It that had a REALLY sweet starting
sequence. It turns out that all three of us made exactly the same mistake that Jason did
in terms of deciding when to cut your feet and swing. Super cool lead on Jason's behalf
and the first time I've seen someone sit with rope in his mouth and switch hands four times
before making the clip. This is a video of Jason working through the start: JASON CLIMBING VIDEO

Now, I got to try a few attempts on TR of the tough sequence. Here's a video of me messing up the moves: VIDEO and here's one of me getting the sequence: VIDEO .
Thanks to Jason for more stable video camera work than I normally do.

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Just as we were finishing for the night, we decided to hit a short 5.11a called Micro Pillar .
After searching for my balls for 10 minutes, Jeff finally led the 4 bolt climb and I TR'ed it
afterwards. I'll have to actually bring my sack with me next trip.

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All the time we were at the City, we were treated to excellent climbing weather. It was chilly at night
but once the sun came up, it was warm and crystal clear. This is the sun rising on the City.

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This may wind up being my favourite picture of Jeff Hemphill of all time.
Yes, that's a banana in his mouth Lisa, and yes it's actually mine and we split it.

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After leading a cool 5.8 mixed climb called Twist and Crawl , we top-roped a 5.10a crack that really beat up on Jeff and I.
The 5.10a route was called Bloody Fingers and was on the Super Hits Wall.
The start section (what Jeff is on) was pretty tenuous and would've been difficult to be stable enough
to place gear on.

Video showing Jason falling off the crux of the climb (and where I would've decked on lead): VIDEO

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Jason, hanging out after coming off at the business of the crack.

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This was something that Jeff and I had seen last year when we were coming back from the City.
This can be seen in the Hallowe'en season in Oakley, Idaho.